Let’s get this straight: I’m pissed!
These fantasy sports leagues have killed the concept of being a fan in this country. And being a fan of sports is as American as the 4th of July, apple pie, a white picket fence and the girl next door. It’s our emotional center.
We love our sports. We love our teams. We root passionately for them. We live our lives thru their accomplishments. We love the players who make our teams champions. And the path to that coveted prize, the path to the championship brings us against innumerable adversaries… adversaries set upon defeating us. Adversaries that block our path to that championship alter. As a fan, as a true fan, we hate our adversaries… and we hate their players.
But, and this is truly regrettable, there is this phenomena that is sweeping this nation like the bubonic plague. It is a scourge to our society. It’s fantasy leagues. Sport fans who engage in the vicarious thrill of creating their own “dream team” of players. Players assembled from all the teams… the very teams and players standing between our team, and our team’s players and that championship . You know… act as your own GM. Pick and choose players from any roster. Then, having put together the perfect team, we check in the morning papers to see how our first sacker or pitcher performed the previous evening. So many points for hits, so many for strikeouts & etc. At the end of the season we tally up all of our teams points and see how we did in our fantasy league.
Your Team? Your team includes Red Sox players? How can this be? Could you imagine Jackie Robinson playing for another team and wearing another uniform? Even he couldn’t imagine it!! He retired rather than put on the uniform of the team he was traded to… the Giants. The hated Giants. He played his last game as a Dodger on October 10, 1956… some 50+ years ago, and Rachel Robinson (his widow) still hates the Giants. Now that’s a fan.
I heard from Shaina. She has been a Yankee fan forever. She is in a Fantasy League with Zack. Zack is a big time sports fan, he probably is in every Fantasy League invented… maybe even that NASCAR thing. Anyway… and I am getting to the upsetting part… Shaina says that Zack has more Red Sox players on his Fantasy Team than Yankees! Even Shaina admitted to have Dice-K on her Fantasy Team. What? Treason and treachery!
How could he even have one Red Sox player on his team? I don’t care how good that player is. It’s flat wrong… it strikes to the core of being a true fan… of not only wanting success for our team and our players; but the total failure of our opponents and their players.
So what will happen the next time the Bronx Bombers invade Fens? Sure Zack will want the Pin Stripes to prevail. But say he has Kevin Youklis on his Fantasy Team, and he needs the Sox stalwart on first to have a big night at the plate… what do we have? Divided loyalty, that’s what we have! A true fan would say, “I want to see the Yankees murder the Red Sox, and may Kevin Youklis have a season ending case of bleeding hemorrhoids.”
Sorry. This Fantasy League stuff (and it exists for all the major sports… even NASCAR, just ask Zack) is bad for sport. It’s bad for this country. It’s transferring our enthusiasm for the team, to the enthusiasm for the individual player: a “statistic machine.” An individual whose only value is his personal stats… how many base hits, RBIs, homeruns & etc. And sadly we have produced a generation of players obsessed with their minutes, their stats. Oh, winning is a good thing; but what were my stats? That’s how I am being compensated. The uniform, the team has become a side note.
Yeah, I’m pissed. This fantasy stuff is diluting what is elemental to team sports. And we are losing the sense of what it is to be a fan. It’s about the team.
Well… it’s a new generation, after all. Maybe they are better equipped to handle the balancing act of rooting for a team, and having a little vicarious thrill on the side. Zack and Shaina? They look none the worse for the wear.